Wireless communication networks of the future will provide broadband services such as wireless Internet access to subscribers. Those broadband services require reliable and high-rate communications over time-dispersive (frequency-selective) channels with limited spectrum and intersymbol interference (ISI) caused by multipath fading. OFDM is one of the most promising solutions for a number of reasons. OFDM has high spectral efficiency and adaptive coding and modulation can be employed across subcarriers. Implementation is simplified because the baseband modulation and demodulation can be performed using simple circuits such as inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) circuits and fast Fourier transform (FFT) circuits. A simple receiver structure is one of the advantages of OFDM system, since in some cases only one tap equalizer is sufficient to provide excellent robustness in multipath environment. In other cases, when OFDM is used in conjunction with signal spreading across multiple subcarriers, a more advanced equalizer may be required.
OFDM has been adopted by several standards such as Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB), Digital Audio Broadcast Terrestrial (DAB-T), IEEE 802.11a/g, IEEE 802.16 and Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL). OFDM is being considered for adoption in standards such as Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) for third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution, CDMA2000, Fourth Generation (4G) wireless systems. IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.16, and IEEE 802.20.
Despite all of the advantages, OFDM has some disadvantages. One major disadvantage of OFDM is its inherent high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). The PAPR of OFDM increases as the number of subcarriers increases. When high PAPR signals are transmitted through a non-linear power amplifier, severe signal distortion will occur. Therefore, a highly linear power amplifier with power backoff is required for OFDM. As a result, the power efficiency with OFDM is low and the battery life of a mobile device implementing OFDM is limited.
Techniques for reducing the PAPR of an OFDM system have been studied extensively. These PAPR reduction techniques include coding, clipping, and filtering. The effectiveness of these methods varies and each has its own inherent trade-offs in terms of complexity, performance, and spectral efficiency.